Legal Education

The Law Society was delighted to present the informative family law seminar Through the Eyes of the Child with The Honorable Justice Turcotte as host. We held the event at TCU Place in Saskatoon on Tuesday, November 20th and in Regina on Wednesday, November 21st at the Delta.

The morning sessions featured our main presenter and clinical psychologist Dr. Craig Childress who gave insight into his Attachment-Based Model of Parental Alienation (AB-PA) and its application to high conflict divorce, specifically focusing on the relationship between parent and child. The lecture continued with a discussion about Dr. Childress’ AB-PA pilot program work with family courts in Houston, Texas and the use of assessment focused treatment in divorce proceedings.

The first afternoon session was comprised of presentations from local professionals regarding various resources available for high-conflict divorce. Participants heard from Connie Lupichuk and Leanne Leedahl of Aspire Too who use an innovative approach to coach parent skills and ultimately reduce the impact of conflict for children in potentially high conflict divorce cases. Coralee Peterson of the Family Justice Services Branch with the Government of Saskatchewan took attendees through the services available from their office. Kim Miller, a consultant with the Government of Saskatchewan’s Dispute Resolution Office discussed high-conflict mediation and reviewed proposed changes to mandatory mediation for family law in Saskatchewan. Finally, participants were presented with a look at some new ways of delivering Family Law services from Charmaine Panko of Panko Collaborative Law & Mediation and some alternative professional services from former lawyer and separation specialist Lana Wickstrom.

The afternoon concluded with the panel discussion When Court is Necessary. In Saskatoon, Justice Turcotte, Jim Vogel Q.C, Dr. Childress, and Kim Miller provided some insight into this topic as well as some best practice strategies for court proceedings. They were joined for the Regina session by Coralee Peterson.

The Law Society of Saskatchewan would like to thank Dr. Childress for travelling all the way from California to share his expertise at this in-depth and informative seminar. We would also like to thank our guest speakers for sharing their knowledge and guidance on this topic. To our participants, thank you for your attendance and thoughtful participation throughout the day.

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Did you know you that the Law Society has a collection of Case Studies for Study Groups hosted on the CPD section of our website and accessible for members interested in a flexible and convenient (and social!) way of obtaining CPD Hours?

A Study Group involves a group of lawyers getting together to discuss content that meets the criteria set out in the CPD Policy. The groups work best when there are 4-5 lawyers meeting to discuss the content set out in the Case Studies. This learning format is a great way to encourage creative thinking and build strong communication skills which also helps to refine understanding of the material!

Additional information regarding these great resources and how to apply for CPD Hours for your group can be found here.

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The Law Society welcomed 85 keen, new student members into the CPLED Bar Admissions Course this year. The students kicked off the course with a week in Regina where they received instruction in interviewing and advising skills, legal research skills and proper citation usage for Saskatchewan courts. SLIA, the CBA, the STLA and PBLS also presented to the students. A highlight of the week was an invitation to students from Chief Justice Richards to attend at the Court of Appeal for a reception. Students were able to meet many of the justices and get a behind the scenes look at the Court of Appeal. (A better blogger would have thought to take some photos at this event). By some accounts, watersliding at the hotel and escape rooms were other highlights.

CPLED is the gateway from legal studies to legal practice. Successful completion of CPLED requires a considerable time commitment from students. CPLED staff appreciate the support that firms, the courts, government and other organizations provide by allowing students time during their articles to dedicate to CPLED.

A few students continue to seek articling positions. If you’ve never taken on an articling student, please consider doing so and feel free to contact us. There may be opportunities for joint articles or secondments for those who are concerned that they may not be able to take a student full-time or to provide a broad enough experience.

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Most members of our Law Society have only a vague idea of the workings of the Federation of Law Societies. This is not unexpected as the Federation is an umbrella organization of the Law Societies and not lawyers directly. For many lawyers, however, the face of the Federation has for many years been the National Criminal Law Program and the National Family Law Program.

These two programs have been regarded as the most successful legal education programs delivered on a national level in Canada. For reasons that I will explain in this article, questions have been raised about why the Federation should continue its involvement in these programs despite their incredible success.

So what involvement does the Federation have with these two programs? Often these Canadian Legal Education (CLE) programs are described as being “offered in association with the Federation” or “sponsored by the Federation”. Actually, these initiatives are Federation programs because the Federation lends its brand and goodwill to them.

However, the organization and content are completely independent of the Federation. The organizers are several judges and senior practitioners, who have been regarded as operating at the core of programming and delivery. At the operational level, the Federation provides some office administration services as well as financial and banking services but little else.

So if it isn’t broke, why fix it, is the view of many. These programs have been incredibly successful operating, as they do, independently of the Federation. So successful that they do not operate in a deficit position and are financially solid. Well, it’s not so easy.

As part of the Federation’s 2017-2020 Strategic Plan, the Federation must review “key services” and in particular, review our role in the National Family and Criminal Law programs. Some are of the view that such programming is beyond our mandate and does not fit within our core regulatory function to the law societies.

In light of our Strategic Plan, the Federation Council formed the CLE Program Review Advisory Group with a mandate to review, in conjunction with the current organizers of the programs, the continued involvement of the Federation and report back to Council with a recommendation in due course. I feel fortunate to participate as a member of this committee as I have been a faculty member of the National Family Law Program in the past.

The Advisory Committee has met in Toronto with the organizers of the programs on two occasions and has discussed a wide range of options. One option is for the Federation to pull out entirely which, I believe will not happen. Another option is for the status quo to be maintained. I also feel that this will not happen.

Both the program organizers and members of the Advisory Committee are working to collaborate on a solution or solutions. From my standpoint, this may involve more direct Federation involvement through, perhaps, a CLE standing committee tasked with some form of oversight into the programs but not necessarily program content.

Others may have different views. What we do know is that, through a consultation with Law Society leaders recently, there is overwhelming support for the Federation’s continued involvement in these programs but with the caveat that the delivery of the programming (not necessarily content) must comport with Federation values such as bilingual delivery and public access to materials.

I close out this article by thanking the Law Society Benchers for giving me the opportunity to represent the Society over the last six years. It has been quite a journey which officially will end on November 15 when my successor will take over.

In 2017, the Law Society of Saskatchewan re-established its Equity and Diversity Committee. The purposes of the committee are to monitor developments and advise the Benchers on issues affecting equity and diversity in the legal profession; explore and recommend equity and diversity actions/initiatives; and recommend and support ongoing education and awareness training for members of the profession.

Over the last year, the committee’s focus has been on enhancing its understanding of the makeup of our membership as well as the equity and diversity issues affecting the legal profession in Saskatchewan and society generally. To that end, the committee has sought (and continues to seek) the input of various individuals and groups willing to share their experiences and perspectives. This input will inform the committee’s recommendations for action.

The committee is interested in hearing from any members who have personal experiences they are willing to share regarding barriers they have faced either entering the profession or practicing in Saskatchewan. Anyone interested may contact Ronni Nordal (Chair of the Equity and Diversity Committee) ronni@nordalleblanc.ca or Barbra Bailey (Policy Counsel) barbra.bailey@lawsociety.sk.ca, in confidence, to discuss how their experiences might best be communicated to the committee.

In order to enhance awareness and encourage dialogue among the membership about equity and diversity issues, the Law Society will look for opportunities to share the experiences and insights of our members and to focus on topics relating to equity and diversity. As such, we would like to thank Lola Ayotunde for submitting the following article (to be posted on Legal Sourcery tomorrow) sharing her experience and perspectives gained as an Internationally Trained Lawyer entering the profession in Saskatchewan.

The College of Law recently posted a news release on the website announcing that Nunavut Arctic College (NAC) has awarded the design and delivery of a new law degree program to the University of Saskatchewan. One of the objectives of the law degree program is to increase the number of practicing lawyers in Nunavut. Classes are expected to begin in September 2017 in Iqualuit, with 25 seats available.